Stephen Kinnock, centre left, told The Sun that his party had created a ‘deafening silence’ on immigration

The Aberavon MP – and son of the former leader Neil Kinnock – told a fringe event that Labour’s ignorance led to the rise of Ukip, and proposed a new post-Brexit immigration system.

He told the audience: “Our failure to have an honest and robust conversation about immigration, we contributed directly to the referendum result.

“It is in large parts… our fault.”

And in a thinly-veiled hit at former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he said: “Decisions made by successive progressive leaders contributed to the political environment and propelled Ukip to the forefront of our politics.”

Despite opening Britain’s borders when he was in charge, former premier Mr Blair recently put his name to a report calling on EU migrants to be made to register on arrival so they are counted in and out of the UK.

Welsh MP Mr Kinnock said today that “years and years and years” of Government’s failure to cut numbers had “massively eroded trust in the system”.

He demanded that his party step up to the plate on the “vital” issue and start putting forward proposals for fixing it, rather than shying away from the issue.

Mr Kinnock told The Sun his party had produced “deafening silence” over the issue at this year’s conference, and there had been a “frustrating lack of options” put forward for discussion.

LEVY CHANGE

TERROR FLAGGRO

Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly dodged questions about his thoughts on immigration

Labour faced fury after members decided NOT to hold any votes on Brexit policy at this year’s annual gathering – even after MPs insisted it was the most pressing issue of our generation.

Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has sat on the fence over immigration since the referendum result, and flip-flopped over what he thinks our future post-Brexit should loo

He had recently called for Britain to leave the Single Market and for unlimited EU migration to end when we quit the bloc.

But then he rowed back on that, and said whether Britain stays inside the market was “up for discussion”.

Today Mr Kinnock put forward his own proposals about what immigration could look like after Brexit – proposing a two-tier system.

He said MPs should get to vote on setting sector-by-sector quotas for different industries after we leave the EU, allowing us to limit immigration but still allow high-skilled workers to come to Britain if we need them.